BEVERLEY

way there, bent on plunder. Their leader impiously entered
the Church on horseback, sword in hand, but on the threshold
his horse fell dead and he was stricken with paralysis. His
followers, filled with superstitious dread, hastened to tell the
story to William, who thereupon to placate the saint's wrath
gave a charter to the Minster under the royal seal.

By the twelfth century, Beverley had become a free borough
and an important trading centre. Later, it became a staple for
cloth and the Flemish weavers who settled near the Fleming
Gate made Beverley dyed cloth famous. The town was never
walled, but it had several gates, of which North Bar Gate is the
only survival. Kings frequently visited Beverley ; Edward I,
in 1299, had the banner of St. John of Beverley carried before
his army into battle. Meantime the rebuilding of the Minster
had taken place in the years following the great fire of 1188,
which destroyed all but the nave of the old Church. To-day
the fact that the Minster is crowded up to its walls with houses
makes it difficult to appreciate to the full the beauty of its ex-
terior. Its most remarkable feature is the appearance of unity
which has been achieved in spite of the fact that it is the work
of three periods, ranging from the Early English of the east end
to the Perpendicular of the west front. In its perfect propor-
tion, as in the extreme beauty of its parts, it challenges com-
parison on the one hand with Salisbury and on the other with
York and Lincoln, while in the Percy Tomb it contains the
finest Decorated monument in the country,

St. Mary's Church, founded as a chapel of ease to the
Minster, became a separate church in the fourteenth century,

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